Reusse: Gophers hockey coach Bob Motzko takes the slings and arrows, keeps soldiering on

The older generations of Gophers men’s hockey followers lead the Twin Cities sports market in one area: entitlement.

Or, put it this way: If P.J. Fleck were a hockey coach producing the same ratio of Big Ten wins as he has in football, there would not be fan sites with declarations that P.J. is the finest coach in their lifetimes.

The restless puck faithful would be, instead, pleading for the return of Don Lucia, or perhaps Brad Buetow, now 75 and last reported living in Colorado Springs.

Apples to oranges, you say?

Maybe, but Bob Motzko could only wish the 24 games his hockey team is playing against Big Ten opponents contained as many struggling rivals as Fleck’s nine-game conference schedule this past fall.

Motzko is now in Season 8 since he came in from St. Cloud State to replace Lucia.

The Gophers’ curmudgeonly hockey crowd was entering its sixth winter of complaining about the WCHA being replaced by the Big Ten. In that first season as a Big Ten representative in 2013-14, Lucia’s Gophers reached the national final before losing to Union’s Ancient Dutchmen 7-4.

In Motzko’s third season, in the spring of 2021, the Gophers were in the West Regional final. This was followed by the Frozen Four semifinals in 2022, and then the overtime loss to Quinnipiac in the national title game in 2023.

The Gophers were 79-30-1 in those three seasons. The students were back, filling one circle of the arena, and trying to get around the anti-taunting rules do-gooders were attempting to place on them.

Obviously, there was a universal “Thanks, Bob” from Gophers fans for this fantastic return to excellence for the Gophers.

OK, maybe the students felt that way, but not the entitled folks still talking up the days of Herbie Brooks in the 1970s, when college hockey was a much tinier world.

For those folks, the loss to Quinnipiac wasn’t a heartbreaker at the end of a great Gophers run. It was Motzko ordering a defensive style in the third period and losing a one-goal lead late; it was Motzko having Brock Faber next to him in overtime as the Gophers gave up the losing goal in 10 seconds.

And then it came again in the just-concluded world junior tournament here in the Twin Cities. Motzko was head coach for the U.S. team. First, there was the accusation that he played the wrong goalie in a 6-3 loss to Sweden at the end of the preliminary round.

That put the U.S. against Finland in the eight-team final bracket, and the Finns scored in the 3-on-3 overtime for a 4-3 victory.

You can look up the comments on the various articles: more complaints that Motzko can’t win the big one — although, there is the fact he was the coach when the U.S. juniors won the “big one” as 2017 world champions.

“This was the third time I’ve done it as head coach, and, again, it was a great experience,” Motzko said. “The Minnesota people who put this on, who worked tremendously hard, did a great job. We were able to play in front of some great crowds.

“Three-on-three to end such a big game … and I’m not a fan. But then, in 2017, we won the gold medal in 3-on-3, so it’s really exciting when you’re the team getting that goal."

Motzko’s Gophers have sent that supply of stalwarts to the NHL in recent years — and got caught between greatness departed and talented freshmen trying to catch up with the college game. Five strong players with eligibility remaining departed for the pros after last season.

The Gophers will resume play at 8-10-1 and buried at 32nd in the NCAA’s new National Power Index used to fill 10 of the 16 spots in the national field. The other six go to league playoff champs.

“We had two terrible weeks in the first half — getting swept at home by UMD and then at Wisconsin,“ Motzko said.

“Since then, Brodie Ziemer, he was with the juniors again, he’s playing excellent for us [the Gophers]. Brody Lamb has been outstanding lately. Our freshmen — L.J. Mooney, Javon Moore, Tate Pritchard … they are all picking it up.

“And we better be ready to go, because this weekend is at Penn State, followed by series with Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin. The Big Ten is tough.”

“Not worth talking about,” Motzko said. “We basically play two seasons in college hockey, and we’re hoping to show our growth in the second one.”

This conversation with Motzko took place Tuesday — one day before what would have been the 25th birthday for Mack Motzko, Bob and Shelley’s son killed by a drunken driver in July 2021.

“We remember Mack every day, but how we do that is private,” Motzko said.

We talked a bit more hockey, and then there was a practice to be held and, perhaps, Motzko’s eighth Gophers season to be rescued.